


The First Dream

by Scat



Series: Dreamsong [1]
Category: Dreamsong, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Minecraft, Sad story prepare your tissues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-17 00:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3508469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scat/pseuds/Scat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate is living in the Minecraft realm, perfectly happy and safe until she dreams one night of the mother and father that she never knew.  As she sets off to find her parents and the truth behind their disappearance, she meets a strange old woman named Caric and embarks on the most important journey of her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Dream

Kate placed the final block of her brand new home. Wiping the final drop of sweat from her forehead, she moved around to the front of the house to observe her handiwork. It wasn’t all hers, as her friend Thessa had stopped by and helped Kate with her roof. However the interior work was done by hand by Kate. She walked into the open concept kitchen dining room mix that led into the cozy living room. She followed the hallway to the left of the living room to the enchanting room and reading room. Kate selected one of her favorite stories from her shelf, and then walked back into the kitchen and through the hallway to her bedroom, where she curled up in her bed, observing the sunset through her window. She began the book, but was so tired that she wasn’t able to get very far before nodding off to sleep.

The world felt muffled, different from the real world. Kate was standing up in a small, warm room that smelled of pine sap. Her clothes were scratchy, but she was used to it. She felt soft, gentle hands brushing her hair, and closed her eyes to let the feeling of comfort and safety wash over her. Then the brushing stopped and the hands began braiding her hair into a long rope that fell down her back.   
“There,” said a sweet, light voice. “All better now.”   
“Mother,” Kate said in a five year old voice, sniffling. “When is daddy coming home?”   
Mother sighed softly, and when she spoke again, her voice cracked slightly from the concealed tears. “Not for a while. He hunts among the skies now.”  
“Will he be home for dinner?”  
“No, darling,” The air was split with the sound of a fist on the door. Mother looked up, her beautiful face cracked and strained with worry, but she hid her fear for the sake of her daughter.  
“I’ll be right back, honey. Go to your room and read your book. Your favorite one, about the cat and the mouse. I’ll be right there.”  
Kate skipped to her room and opened her book. She had only just begun the first page when she heard shouting, then a scream, then silence. Someone was banging on the door again. Kate realized something was wrong.  
“Momma? Momma? Momma!!” There was no answer. The door burst open.

Kate woke up with a gasp, her clothes drenched with sweat. Her heart was hammering and she desperately reached for, not a weapon, but her book, clutching it to her chest, allowing the words to keep her safe. 

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Kate jumped, and seized her sword from the table beside her, creeping slowly through the silent house toward the door. She looked quickly out the window and saw her friend, Mia, at the door. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kate opened the door and let her friend in.

“Hello Kate! I really like your house, it’s really pretty,” Mia glanced at Kate’s leather pajamas. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“No, I was already awake. What’s up?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to see your home. You look upset. Is everything ok?”

“Yeah…No…Can I just….” Mia understood her friend’s loss for words.

“Let’s get some breakfast and then we can talk about whatever you need to talk about.”

“Thank you, Mia,” Kate said, walking with her friend into the kitchen. 

After Kate had gotten both of them bread and milk, they sat down on the couch in the living room and Kate explained her dream, with Mia listening attentively like a good friend should. 

“So you dreamed about your mother?”

“Yeah,”

“And your mother, who you never met, talked about your father, who you never met, and then she disappeared?”

“Yeah, I think. It’s just so confusing. Why would I have a dream like that?”

“Maybe it was a memory,”

“What?”

“In legend and lore, sometimes a hero will uncover an old memory that they need to complete their mission in a dream. Maybe that’s what happened. This dream was a memory from another life.”

“Wow, I never thought of that.” 

Mia smiled. “That’s why I’m here. You’re welcome.”

“So what should I do?”

“Do you remember a location in your dream?”

“No, I…hang on; our cabin was in a pine forest. There’s only one pine forest that I know of in this realm, and it’s only a couple days ride from here. I could probably get there and see if there are any clues as to if my dream was real and where to go from there.”

“That’s the only thing that I can think of to do. But it’ll be dangerous. You’ll be going into uncharted land.”

“I’ll be fine,” Kate assured Mia. “I’ve handled worse than a big, bad forest.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“No, I think you’ve already helped enough. Maybe just make sure Snowfire is ready to ride.”

Mia nodded and left the home, heading to the stables nearby. Kate then grabbed her pack from her room, filling it with a few basic needs such as food, blankets, extra materials, and her book for good measure. Who knew, maybe it held some clues between its covers. Then Kate put on her iron armor, strapped her sword to her belt and her pick axe to her back, then placed her enchanted bow in her pack so that it was sticking out slightly, making it easy to grab in the case of an emergency. The bow was uniquely enchanted so that every time that she pulled the bow back, an arrow would automatically appear. She left her home, casting it one last glance before heading towards the stables.

Mia was already there, feeding Kate’s beloved white horse, Snowfire, carrots from her hand. Snowfire was already saddled and brushed, so Kate simply swung into the saddle. 

“Thanks Mia. I’ll be home soon.”

“Just don’t die.”

Kate smiled, and then tapped Snowfire’s flanks with her boots, riding him across the plains towards the infamous pine forest.


	2. The Strange Cabin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate is living in the Minecraft realm, perfectly happy and safe until she dreams one night of the mother and father that she never knew. As she sets off to find her parents and the truth behind their disappearance, she meets a strange old woman named Caric and embarks on the most important journey of her life.

After riding all day, Kate had reached the edge of the plains that she called home and entered the mountainous regions of the world. She rode until she found a good place for a camp, a small cave with a lake nearby it. She stopped and dismounted Snowfire, leading him to the water to drink and rest, then walked into the cave and laid out her blankets in the most comfortable way that she could. After Snowfire had finished drinking, she led him also into the cave and tied him to her pack, which she used as a pillow, so that if he moved too far, she would wake and know. Kate placed a few torches around the cave, so that a pleasant light shone over the camp. Then she built a makeshift wall at the front of the cave to keep out the monsters of the night. She laid her sword and bow out on the floor directly by her bed so that she could grab them at a moment’s notice, and didn’t even change out of her armor before curling up to go to sleep. She found that the gentle crackling of the torches and the snorting of Snowfire was enough to put her to sleep.

Kate was again surrounded by the smell of a pine forest, but now she stood outside, in a clearing full of sunlight and haystacks. She was carrying a bow and arrow. Beside her, stood her father. She didn’t know how she knew that the man was her father, she just knew. Unlike her mother, she could actually see that the man had short, dark brown hair and thin stubble on his chin. He was smiling gently at Kate and carrying a matching bow and arrow. He moved her arms to show her how to hold, pull back, and shoot the bow.

“Ok, and remember to pull back all of the way, even when shooting at targets close to you,” He said. Kate strung an arrow, pulled her bow, aimed at the center of a haystack in front of her, and then let the arrow fly. The arrow went high and to the left of where she had aimed.

“I missed, daddy,” She said, her voice that of a five year old again.

“That’s ok, honey. No one is perfect, but you were really close. I bet that one day, you will be able to shoot better than I can,”

“Really?”

“Sure, why not?” Suddenly, there was a growl just beyond the trees, and a horde of zombies and skeletons, at least 15 of them, stormed the shooting range.

“GO! Run back to your mother!” The man shouted, and Kate didn’t think twice before racing back through the trees to her home. She heard a roar, then a shout, the sharp twang of an arrow being loosed, though from which side, she did not know. She could hear nothing else over the sound of her panting, and could barely see through the tears that had begun to blur her vision.

Kate woke up, tangled in her blankets. Snowfire was beside her, looking down at her with his big, worried, hazel eyes. 

“I had another dream, Snowfire,” She said to the horse, stroking his nose. “That’s why we are here, because of these dreams,” Snowfire continued to look at her, and Kate sighed.  
“You can’t understand me. What am I thinking, talking to a horse? Maybe I’m just going crazy.”

Kate mumbled darkly to herself as she saddled up Snowfire and repacked her blankets and bow, slipping her sword into her belt. Then she removed the makeshift wall, swung herself into the saddle, and began riding again.

The sun had begun to set by the time that Kate had finished riding. They were just on the edge of the pine forest. Now came the hard part of finding where the cabin, and her family, might be. She began to set up a makeshift camp again along a side of a mountain, when she noticed Snowfire eagerly running away from her. There was something that he wanted on the other side of the mountain.

“Snowfire, come back!” The horse’s ears flicked when she called, but he didn’t slow. Kate grabbed her pack again and began to run after him. Just as she rounded a corner, she ran directly into him. He had come to a complete stop. 

“Snowfire, what are you thinking, you silly…” she stopped when she saw a small light in the distance, shining from a window of a cabin…..A cabin! Kate ran towards it, and then stopped as she got close. This cabin was very obviously inhabited, so it probably wasn’t her old home, but maybe the person who lived here could point her in the right direction. She walked up to the door, and knocked three times, then waited. She was just about to turn around and leave when the door swung upon, revealing a very short, very old woman in the doorway. 

“Hello? What is it?” the woman asked.

“Oh, I was just wondering…”

“Did my grumbleshnacks come yet?”

“Uh, no. I came because I…”

“Oh where are my manners, come in come in!” Then the woman promptly pulled Kate through the door into the house. She was stronger than she looked.

“Now dear, let’s get nice and cozy by the fire so you can tell me why you’ve graced me with your presence at this given moment in time.” The two walked into a cozy living room with two big, squishy chairs and a large fireplace. The cabin was small, and warm, with only this room, a kitchen, and a bedroom from what Kate had seen of it so far. After they had sat down, the woman made a big show of getting them both cookies and milk, despite Kate’s protests. Finally, they settled down and Kate, who had expected to be telling a small lie about herself being a trader searching for one of her old customers, telling the complete and true story, starting from the moment she had first dreamt of her mother. She just couldn’t lie to the kindly old lady. The woman was very polite and didn’t stop Kate in the retelling of her story. Finally, Kate asked if the woman knew anything about her mother or where she might be.

“You’re friend is right about dreams being premonitions or memories, and your dreams appear to be just that. However, I think the best way for you to solve this is to sleep and dream more. So, what say you we get you a warm bath, a nice big slice of pie, and then off to bed? I have an extra bedroom, but it’s a bit small.”

“That’s fine, anything is fine. Thank you for your hospitality.”

“Now, the bathroom in the first room on your left, just down that hallway,” the woman said, pointing down a short hallway. “And your bedroom will be the last room on the right. I shall get your horse into my yard for safekeeping and put your bags into your room.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, thank the Hobblegruffs.”

“The what?”

“The trolls of fate and odd encounters. I think you will agree that this is certainly an odd encounter, and I can assure you that this is, indeed, fate. Now run along, wash the dirt of your journey from your skin and clothes, and enjoy the hot water.” 

Then the woman bustled out the doorway to retrieve Snowfire. Kate walked into the bathroom and found a single sink, a cabinet, a toilet, and a claw-footed bathtub with taps for both hot and cold water. Odd, that the woman would have electricity all the way out here. Kate turned the tap for hot water, then pulled off her armor and sunk into the warm water. The water seemed to soak away all of her cares or send them evaporating away as steam. 

When she was done, she wrapped herself in a towel and walked to her room to retrieve her armor, finding the woman sitting in a chair (the only other furniture in the room besides a chest and a bed), fingering her enchanted bow. She looked down the entire shaft and ran her fingers along the string, pulling it back until the arrow magically appeared, and ready to shoot. She carefully released the string so that the arrow wouldn’t fire, and placed the arrow back into Kate’s bag. The kindly expression on her face was gone, replaced instead by grim determination and intelligence. Kate cleared her throat to show that she was there, and the woman jumped, her face immediately regaining its warmth.

“This is a very fancy bow that you’ve got here, miss…I don’t think I’ve learned your name.”

“I’m Kate, and I enchanted that bow myself. It’s one of my most prized possessions.”

“Indeed. Well, I am Caric, a humble old lady, so starved for company that I will invite anyone into my home.” Kate thought that the lady was hiding something and, considering how quickly she had gone from creepy woman interested in her bow to kind old grandmother, it was completely possible and probably very likely.

“Something tells me that you are withholding something from me.”

“I think my information is best shared after a good night’s rest and, hopefully, a sweet dream. Your horse is safe, and I will have bread and eggs ready for you in the morning, but it is now time for you to sleep. So goodnight, sleep tight, and don’t let the Fleedrims bite. See you in the morning.” The woman left the room, easing the door shut behind her. 

As soon as she was gone, Kate opened her pack to check its contents, but nothing was missing or moved. Kate took her sword and placed it beside her in bed, along with her bow. Something inside of her told her that this woman, while mysterious, did not mean her any harm and definitely knew something, so Kate decided to stay with her to see what she could find out. Even so, she kept her hand tightened around the hilt of her sword until she fell asleep.


	3. Hage Byth, The True Language

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate is living in the Minecraft realm, perfectly happy and safe until she dreams one night of the mother and father that she never knew. As she sets off to find her parents and the truth behind their disappearance, she meets a strange old woman named Caric and embarks on the most important journey of her life.

In this dream, Kate found herself in a crib. Her tiny limbs were too tired to move, and her blanket was warm and cozy. Just beside her crib, she heard a sweet voice, that she knew belonged to her mother, begin to sing.

In the darkest, coldest morning  
When the moon has gone to bed  
When the sparrows stop their singing  
I’ll return to you again.

The gentle words repeated a few times, and then were followed by strange words that Kate had never heard, almost in a different language, but to the same rhythm and melody. Kate wanted to hear more, but could not resist sleep any longer. Outside, it began to rain, fat raindrops falling quickly and quietly against the window panes.

Kate awoke her sword still beside her, and a sense of calm within and around her. She stretched and got out of bed, walking into the kitchen where Caric was waiting. She already had bread out on the table, and eggs were cooking over the fire in the living room, filing the home with the smell of breakfast. Kate ate her food slowly, savoring the taste and the remainder of the calm from her dream. Caric, quite the opposite, sat down and wolfed her bread down, getting up to bring the eggs back, and then wolfing down half of those too. She was finished before Kate had even begun on her eggs, and used the time to stare and Kate while she ate, scrutinizing her every detail, from the long brown hair and blue eyes, to her leather slippers. Kate tried to ignore the x-ray glare, by looking out the window at the forest around her, wondering if her old home was just beyond those trees. Caric wiped her face with a napkin, and then cleared her throat.

“I think it is time for you to tell me about your latest dream.” Caric said, and Kate straightened in her chair, recounting the song that had haunted her sleep. Caric’s face lost all color when Kate spoke of the mysterious words in a different language. 

“Can you repeat any of these words?”

“I’ll try,” Kate said a few of the words, and then jumped as a boom of thunder shook the house. Caric grew even paler, and a vague suspicion rose in Kate’s mind. 

“Caric, it started raining in my dream after my mother…”

“Vision. These dreams are obviously not just dreams, but visions, memories, if you will.”

“Right, after my mother spoke those words in this vision…do you think that maybe she was using magi…”

“Come with me, child.” Caric said, and then walked briskly out the door. Kate followed, but grabbed two cloaks from a peg by the door first. She found the woman standing beside the pen where Snowfire stayed that night, and handed her a cloak, which the woman did not take.

“Gayrn oiye hcya, acche horayhe.” She said, speaking words that sounded like gibberish. Snowfire immediately perked up, grabbed a flower in his mouth, and carried it to Caric, dropping it in her hand.

“How did you…”

“I said, ‘bring me that rose, gentle horse.’ You didn’t understand me, did you?”

“Of course not, you spoke in gibberish.”

“I spoke in the same language your mother did when singing you to sleep. It is called Hage Byth, or the True Language. Everything in the universe understands it, so all you must do, is to open your ears. Suae Menkoph.” Kate felt a faint popping in her ears. Then Caric spoke again.

“Noble horse, bring me that rose.” Snowfire trotted to the corner of his pen, retrieved the rose, and dropped it in Caric’s hand.

“Do you see? Your mother, and I, spoke words of power, words of magic. And soon, you shall too.”

Then began the most important lesson of her life. With Caric as her teacher, Kate learned the names of all of the materials and animals in the realm. At will, when she spoke the name of the object, it would appear in her hand. She was even able to simply speak it in her mind and there was the same result. The training lasted weeks, if not months, but the time flew by. Kate felt herself getting stronger every day, finding herself able to summon objects easier and quicker than she had a day before. She soon learned to summon enchanted objects as well, and replaced her iron sword with an especially sharp diamond sword, even though she didn’t replace her bow. Caric was revealed to be a very talented enchantress, and taught Kate everything that she knew, from asking the birds to sing for her, to summoning the sharpest sword, to enriching meat by thanking the animal from which it came in the True Language. While Kate had put her original mission on hold, she still did not forget her mother or father, and she was reminded of them every night in her dreams.


	4. The Midnight Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate is living in the Minecraft realm, perfectly happy and safe until she dreams one night of the mother and father that she never knew. As she sets off to find her parents and the truth behind their disappearance, she meets a strange old woman named Caric and embarks on the most important journey of her life.

One night, Caric woke Kate in the middle on the night in a state of panic.

“Caric? What’s wrong?” 

“Pack your things, they’ve found us. We’re leaving.”

“What? Who’s found us? What’s going on?”

“No time to explain, pack your bags, we have to go. Now!”

“No! You can’t just say something like that and expect me to just leave without question. I need to know what’s going.”

“We have to go, I can explain on the road.”

“NO! You explain this now. I’m stronger, I can stay and fight.”

“How do I impress this on you? They came for you when you were a baby, and they’re coming for you again. You cannot win this time. Put aside your stubbornness and RUN!”

“Who is coming for me, who?”

“Ender and his men.”

“Ender? What is that supposed to mean?” They were interrupted by the sound of a branch snapping, the crack resounding like gunfire. They both froze, and then Caric whispered.

“Torches, extinguish in this house.” The house went dark. 

“Maybe they won’t see us.” Kate hoped. Then Snowfire whinnied desperately and the sound of many zombies split the air.

“SNOWFIRE! Run to a cave and hide!” Kate called in the Ancient Language. Snowfire’s hoofs clapped against the ground as he ran, and Kate hoped he would be safe. She knew that she had given them away, but she would not let the only animal she cared about be slaughtered. Caric glared, but stopped when there was a pounding on the door. 

“They’re going to break through the door,” Caric said. “We will have a chance if we can hold them at bay long enough for the sun to rise. They are terrified of the sun and it will burn them if they are out in it. Ready?” Kate summoned her sword, bow, and pack from her room.

“Ready.” Just then, the door burst at the hinges and the first zombie entered the home. Caric shot a ball of energy at him, and he was blasted back.

“Let’s go!” Kate raced out the door, followed by Caric, who was running at the speed of someone half her age. They fanned out into the yard, and Kate summoned a torch, which she placed on the ground. There was silence and the dark forest seemed to be empty, even though Kate knew that the trees were crawling with zombies, skeletons, and who knew what else. Caric shot another ball of energy into the trees and it lit a path through the trees, revealing more mobs than Kate thought there was possible to be in one place. They all stormed Kate and Caric, who immediately moved back to back into battle positions. Kate decided to rely entirely on her bow, knowing that if the creatures got close enough to hit with a sword, it would already be too late. These mobs were different than anything else Kate had ever seen. They were bigger, tougher, and some were wearing armor, definitely more organized than any other group of monsters that Kate had ever seen. She pulled her bow and loosed her first arrow, hitting a zombie through the eye and killing him instantly. She shot arrow after arrow as Caric adopted the strategy of destroying the blocks underneath mobs or dropping heavy anvils on their heads. Soon the ground was covered with bodies, but the zombies just kept coming. Kate’s arm was getting tired as she shot what seemed like her hundredth arrow, and then focused on a new foe to her left.

“Look out!” shouted Caric, then she hurled herself in front of Kate. The arrow that seemed to come from the middle of nowhere struck Caric directly in the stomach with a thud, and she fell hard to the ground.


	5. Caric's Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate is living in the Minecraft realm, perfectly happy and safe until she dreams one night of the mother and father that she never knew. As she sets off to find her parents and the truth behind their disappearance, she meets a strange old woman named Caric and embarks on the most important journey of her life.

“CARIC, NO!” Kate screamed, kneeling beside her master. The battle seemed to slow, and at first Kate wondered why the monsters didn’t just kill her, until she saw the sun begin to rise in the distance. The monsters began to fall back among the trees and into caves, and the few that remained in the open screamed and howled as they burned. Kate didn’t care; she just stayed by her master’s side, surrounded by the hundreds of monsters that their combined skill had killed. But it hadn’t been enough. Caric was breathing heavily and her eyes were lidded. Yet, she still spoke.

“Kate,” she whispered, a small fleck of blood appearing at the corner of her mouth. “I have one final secret for you.” She took a deep breath, and in a shaky voice, sang:

“In the darkest, coldest morning  
When the moon has gone to bed  
When the sparrows stop their singing  
I’ll return to you again.”

“Caric, you’re…”

“Your mother, yes. I was forced to flee the grounds when Ender’s men arrived to kill us, but I managed to send you to a distant realm where I thought they wouldn’t be able to find us. It was a moment of foolishness, and almost cost both of us our lives, and it took me years to find that I had sent you to a realm called the Heartstone, and years more to find my own way there.”

“Caric, I…”

“Silence, I don’t have much time, and I must finish the story,” she caught her breath, her words becoming softer and softer. “I used a special method of magic that allowed me to watch you. I saw you grow up, meet caring friends, and build your home. It was I that sent you the dream of me, hoping, praying that you would find your way here. I didn’t reveal myself to you originally, because I wanted you to stay. I was afraid that, if you knew who I was, you would leave me and I would never teach you of the magic that runs through your veins. You are stronger than even you know. Never….never…give in. Find…your father. I think he….still lives. Find him…and…tell him…”

“Tell him what? Mother? MOTHER!! Come back! I LOVE you! Don’t you know that? Come back!!” Kate burst into tears as she watched the life leave her Caric’s eyes. She clutched the body and hugged it, sobbing into the bloodied shirt, sobbing and cursing the world and Ender in the True Language, promising to avenge her. She felt a gentle touch on her back, and found Snowfire standing at her side again, waiting for her. She knew what to do.

Kate blasted a hole in the earth in front of Caric’s cabin, and gently used the powers of wind to lower the body into the hole. She covered the hole with two diamond blocks and a sign that said:

Here lies Caric  
A powerful enchantress  
And a wonderful mother and teacher  
To me. Rest in peace, mother.

She then summoned bouquets of flowers and laid them around and over the grave. Why was life so cruel? Why must everything die? Kate left the grave, and collected her pack, walking inside one more time to see the home. She then mounted Snowfire and, casting the grave one last sorrowful glance, rode away, past the bodies of the monsters that had killed Caric, killed her mother. She rode over the hills, giving Snowfire strength with words from the True Language so that he was able to make the entire trip in one day. She rode with adrenaline still coursing through her body, so when she finally returned home, she found her entire body to be sore and stiff. She led Snowfire to his stable, where he gratefully drank water and ate hay. Then she went back in front of her home, looking up at her. Amazing how just a short time ago, she had finished this home, with no care in the world other than what book to read. Sure, she had been almost killed in a water temple, by pigmen, and several other times, but this, this pain was worse than death. Knowing that her mother was so close, had been watching over Kate her entire life, and they had almost had a life together. But now she was gone, dead, shot by an arrow. Fury welled up inside of Kate, and she channeled it in the only way she knew how. She unleashed a giant wave of wind that moved in a circle around her, slamming her door shut, and stabbed her sword into the earth in front of her. She stared into the setting sun and spoke a solemn vow in the True Language.

“Caric, I have witnessed your death, and feel as if it is I who has died, such is the pain in my heart. But I shall not rest until Ender, and every disgusting beast that has ever served him, has tasted my blade. I will avenge your death, if it is the last thing I do. Such is my oath, and I shall honor it and follow it with every fiber in my body. LET IT BE!” The ground pulsed with magic and Kate watched as the sun disappeared into the horizon.


End file.
